


He Said, She Said

by MsJackofAllFandoms



Series: 30 Day Writing Challenge 2011 [19]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Funny, Gen, Humour, M/M, Penelope Clearwater is mentioned - Freeform, office gossip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-06
Updated: 2011-04-06
Packaged: 2018-09-23 22:36:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9684266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsJackofAllFandoms/pseuds/MsJackofAllFandoms
Summary: Unluckily for Percy, not even he is exempt from being the topic of office gossip. Also unfortunately for him, Oliver Wood does not let things go easily.





	

  
_A young woman, no older than twenty-two, shuffled the papers that she held her hands and organised them into colour co-ordinated piles at the side of a big, wooden table. The two men, her boss and his… friend, sat either side of it and watched her out of the corner of their eyes, whilst looking at each other, and their food, in awkward silence._

When she was done, she looked up to her boss and smiled. “The reds need to go by three, Mr Weasley, and there’s a green at the top of it’s file that needs a co-signature.”  
Percy nodded and smiled back, “Thank you, Janet. I’ll sign them after I’m done with dinner.”

Janet nodded in reply, “Yes, sir.” She turned to the other gentleman in front of her and couldn’t help grin, “And let me just say, Mr Wood, before I go-“  
Percy cleared his throat urgently, “Thank you. Janet”  
She carried on unruffled; “-that we’re all really pleased for Mr Wea-“

Percy panicked, “YES THANK YOU, JANET.”

Janet stopped talking, smiled sheepishly at her boss, “Sorry, sir.” She gestured to the door. “I’ll be back for those forms later, Sir.”

Oliver, looking a bit confused, lifted a fork full of food to his mouth. He stopped before putting it into his mouth and lowered it back down. “What was all that about?”  
Percy waved his hand in dismissal, “Nothing, Oliver. You were saying?”

“That didn’t look like nothing.” Oliver replied, giving Percy a scrutinous look, “What was she going to say?”

Percy shook his head, “Just something about idle office gossip. Carry on, Oliver, I don’t have all afternoon.”

Percy knew he’d said the wrong thing, but he’d said it in the hopes that Oliver would just drop it. He did, but not for long…

 

***** ***** *****  


  
  
Oliver gave a bark of a laugh, “Well who did she hear that from?”  
  
Percy gave him a pointed look, “Whom.” He went back to the magical recipe book he was cooking from, “And I’m not playing a game of ‘he said, she said’ with you, Oliver. What does it matter anyway? It’s all office gossip. Quite frankly, I thought you were above all that.”  
  
Oliver snorted. “No need to get all stuck up. You know I don’t give a damn about the gossip at your office. It’s who’s saying it that I’m asking you about.”  
  
Percy sighed in frustration. “What does it matter?” He floated the napkins over to the table, followed by the cutlery and the salt and pepper shakers. All items landed in their respective places, and the napkins went through the extra effort of folding themselves up into neat triangles.  
  
Oliver shrugged and fiddled with the napkin, undoing it’s folds and not-so hard work. “It seemed to matter earlier. And honestly, Percy, you didn’t have to go through all this for me. It’s just us two having tea.”  
  
“I’m paying you back for last month, and really, it’s nothing. Watch out for those napkins, though, they do their own thing.” He swished his wand and said the appropriate spells to make the food finish cooking and float itself onto the plates. He kept an eye on the food as it obeyed the spells, and carried on talking to Oliver. “They’ve broken cupboard hinges when I’ve not had them out to use, so it’s just better for everyone to use them.”  
  
Oliver stopped messing with the napkin immediately and shoved it carefully away from himself. Percy watched it as it folded itself into a swan and placed itself protectively between the salt and pepper shakers.  
  
When the food was on the plate, Percy levitated them to the table, and set each plate in front of their respective seats, before sitting down himself.  
  
In Percy’s opinion, they were eating in amiable silence. Then Oliver spoke.  
  
“So… about these rumours about you and me…”  
  
Percy sighed in frustrated and cut his spaghetti bolognaise a little more forceful than was necessary. “They’ve seen you come into my office every day this week, they’ve grabbed some ridiculous notion out of thin air and I’ve tried to make my point with Janet but , well, she always was a Hufflepuff.”  
  
Oliver gestured his fork full of bolognaise at him, “Ah, ah. We’re not allowed to mock rival houses anymore. That’s all in the past.”  
  
Percy shrugged, “I didn’t mean it anyway. I never was into the rivalry like you were.”  
  
Oliver shrugged back and shoved his fork full of food in his mouth. “I’m a quidditch player, every other team is an enemy to me. ”  
  
“Oh Oliver, really, you’re nearly thirty. Can you please swallow before you talk?” Percy shook his head and grimaced. How a professional quidditch player at the age of thirty could go to big fancy dinners with famous people and not be caught eating so disgracefully, Percy’ll never know.  
  
Oliver swallowed deliberately “Sorry, I forgot I was eating with my mum.”  
  
Percy shook his head again. “Manners are universal, Oliver. You’re a role model to a lot of people, you could at least pretend to have some.”  
  
Oliver snorted, “Alright, Mr Junior Minister. I’ll consider myself warned.”  
  
They returned to eating in silence, until Oliver spoke again. “My supposed boyfriend’s the Junior Minister of Magic… the Prophit will love that.”  
  
Percy groaned, “I’m firing Janet in the morning.”  
  
Oliver grinned. “You still haven’t told me where her secretary friend in The Handling of Magical Herbology got the idea that we went out during Hogwarts.”  
  
“She didn’t say, Oliver. Now we can get back to eating? It’s going to go cold.” Percy concentrated on cutting his spaghetti bolognaise up to perfection, so that he could continue eating it carefully, without making a mess. It was also a great avoidance technique he’d picked up at Hogwarts.  
  
“You’re lying. First you said you didn’t know, then you downright avoided the question and now you’re saying she didn’t say. You’re too much of a perfectionist to change your story like that.”  
  
“Fine. If you must know, her secretary friend is Penelope’s ex-boyfriend after me, and Penny… well, the less said about it really is for the better, here, Oliver.”  
  
Oliver looked thoughtful as he looked down at his plate of spaghetti bolognaise. Percy was worried Oliver was starting to take these rumours badly, and tried to rack his brain for new topic of conversation. One that wouldn’t look like an obvious way to change the subject.  
  
He was surprised when Oliver chuckled. “Dare I ask what it is you find amusing?”  
  
Oliver took another mouthful of spaghetti bolognaise, and this time swallowed it before talking. “It really was a case of He Said, She Said.”  
  
Percy rolled his eyes, "Yes, very droll Oliver. Now you best wipe that sauce off your face before the napkins try and do it for you."

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written in 2011. I really struggled with this. I had the idea and then the words just ran away with me and then before i knew it, I was approaching a thousand words. I knew where I wanted to end it as well, but the way I've written it, it doesn't sound as complete as I'd planned it to be.


End file.
